BES Facebook pagePress releases
Press releases are posted on the British Ecological Society web pages only after any embargo period has passed. Journalists can access embargoed BES press releases at AlphaGalileo or by contacting Becky Allen, BES Press Officer, email: beckyallen@ntlworld.com.
Links to the most recent press releases are listed below. To view older press releases simply follow the relevant links at the bottom of the page.
Recent press releases
21 December 2011
Frankincense production 'doomed' warn ecologists
Trees that produce frankincense – used in incense and perfumes across the world and a key part of the Christmas story – are declining so dramatically that production of the fragrant resin could be halved over the next 15 years, according to a new study published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology.
07 December 2011
Seeing the Forest Under the Trees
Scientists recently discovered nitrogen that falls from the atmosphere in acid rain can influence large tracts of sugar maples in North America.
The atmospheric nitrogen in acid rain can affect forest ecosystems by acidifying soils and causing nutrient imbalances.
Sugar maples in northeastern North America are especially vulnerable. Vast maple areas have been affected by this acidification process, which depletes soil calcium in already calcium-poor soils such as those of the Eastern United States.
07 November 2011
Deer are bad news for birds
Deer may be affecting some bird species on far larger scales than previously appreciated, new research has found. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, provides evidence that the populations of several woodland bird populations fare worse in areas that have high, rather than low, numbers of deer.
02 November 2011
Roads are detrimental to Europe’s protected bats, new study finds
A new study by the University of Leeds is the first to prove that major roads significantly reduce bat numbers, activity and diversity – raising serious issues for how road construction projects mitigate their impact on these protected species.
19 October 2011
How learning more about mass nesting can help conserve sea turtles
Ecologists are a step closer to understanding one of nature's most extraordinary sights – the 'arribada' or synchronised mass nesting of female olive ridley sea turtles. The new study, published today in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology, is the first to combine three different approaches – genetics, demography and behaviour, and the results should help conserve these vulnerable marine creatures.
5 October 2011
Culling can't save the Tasmanian devil
Culling will not control the spread of facial tumour disease among Tasmanian devils, according to a new study published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Unless a way of managing the disease is found, the iconic marsupial could become extinct in the wild within the next 25 years.
13 September 2011
The chill of the chase: does running explain the naked ape?
Compared with other mammals of similar size, humans are odd-looking creatures because they lack body hair and stand upright. This difference has puzzled zoologists for decades, and speaking at the British Ecological Society's Annual Meeting this week Dr David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University will explain how better computer models are shedding light on this contentious issue.
13 September 2011
Bird boxes shed new light on social life of bats
Ecologists are getting a unique – and unexpected – insight into the private lives of bats thanks to some 1100 bird boxes in an Oxfordshire woodland and analytical techniques more commonly used to study interactions between humans. Speaking at the British Ecological Society's Annual Meeting at the University of Sheffield this week, Tom August from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology will explain that because many ringed bats regularly roost in Wytham Woods' bird boxes, he has been able to gain a unique insight into the bats' social networks.
12 September 2011
Ospreys need helping hand from humans to expand UK range
Ospreys will expand to southern Britain much faster if they are given a helping hand from humans, researchers will tell the British Ecological Society's Annual Meeting at the University of Sheffield this week. Their conclusions come from a long-term study of ringed ospreys breeding in north-east Scotland, which found they have a strong tendency to return to breed close to where they hatched.
12 September 2011
Britain's bluebells and beetles are standing up to wild boar
Britain's beloved bluebell woods appear to be standing up well to the wild boar that escaped from farms and have been breeding here for the past 20 years, new research has found. The results of the study – one of the first into the environmental impact of wild boar in the UK – will be presented this week at the British Ecological Society's Annual Meeting at the University of Sheffield.
24 August 2011
Leading experts arrive in Aberdeen to prompte collaboration in tackling the conflicts that hinder effective conservation
The urgent need to find new ways to tackle such conflicts is the subject of an international conference to be held in Aberdeen on 21-24 August at the Aberdeen Arts Centre.The challenge of conserving biological diversity is becoming ever more difficult as the increase in human popluation and levels of consumption put mounting strain on biodiversity and our natural resources. As the human impact on our planet rises, efforts to conserve biodiversity and resources come increasingly into conflict with other interest groups.
27 July 2011
Seeing the wood for the trees: new study shows sheep in tree ring records
Nibbling by herbivores can have a greater impact on the width of tree rings than climate, new research has found. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, could help increase the accuracy of the tree ring record as a way of estimating past climatic conditions.
19 July 2011
Study shows small-scale fisheries’ impact on marine life
Small-scale fisheries could pose a more serious threat to marine life than previously thought. Research led by the University of Exeter, published today (19 July) in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, shows that tens of thousands of turtles from across the Pacific are being captured through the activities of small-scale fisheries.
12 July 2011
Plants in cities are an underestimated carbon store
Vegetation in towns and cities can make a significant contribution to carbon storage and, ecologists say, could lock away even more carbon if local authorities and gardeners planted and maintained more trees. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, is the first to quantify how much carbon is stored in vegetation within an urban area of Europe.
29 June 2011
How Bumblebees Tackle the Travelling Salesman Problem
It is a mathematical puzzle which has vexed academics and travelling salesmen alike, but new research published in the British Ecological Society’s Functional Ecology, reveals how bumblebees effectively plan their route between the most rewarding flowers while travelling the shortest distances.
24 June 2011
Ovenbirds eavesdrop on chipmunks to protect nests
Ground-nesting birds face an uphill struggle to successfully rear their young, many eggs and fledglings falling prey to predators. Now, scientists from the USA have found that some birds eavesdrop on their enemies, using this information to find safer spots to build their nests. The study – one of the first of its kind – is published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology.
14 June 2011
Chillingham cattle cowed by climate change
Spring flowers are opening sooner and songbirds breeding earlier in the year, but scientists know little about how climate change is affecting phenology – the timing of key biological events – in UK mammals. Now, a new study on Northumberland's iconic Chillingham cattle published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology shows climate change is altering when these animals breed, and fewer calves are surviving as a result.
4 May 2011
Climbers leave rare plants' genetic variation on the rocks
Rock climbers are having a negative impact on rare cliff-dwelling plants, ecologists have found. Writing in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology they say that in areas popular with climbers, conservation management plans should be drawn up so that some cliffs are protected from climbers.
6 April 2011
Climate change is making our environment “bluer”
The “colour” of our environment is becoming “bluer”, a change that could have important implications for animals' risk of becoming extinct, ecologists have found. In a major study involving thousands of data points and published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology, researchers examined how quickly or slowly animal populations and their environment change over time, something ecologists describe using “spectral colour”.
22 March 2011
New technique could help solve mystery of vanishing bees
Ecologists have developed a better way of rearing bee larvae in the laboratory that could help discover why honey bee populations worldwide are declining. The technique, together with details of how statistics adapted from other areas of ecology can aid bee research, is published this week in the British Ecological Society's journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
18 March 2011
Ecologists use 70 year-old pressed plants to chart city's vanishing native flora
More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, yet we know little about how urbanization affects biodiversity. In one the first studies of its kind, ecologists in Indianapolis, USA have used 70 year-old dried plant specimens to track the impact of increasing urbanization on plants. The results are published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Ecology.
2 March 2011
Shark tracking reveals impressive feats of navigation
Some shark species are able to navigate to specific locations up to 50km away, a new study published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology has found. Re-analysing tracking data from tagged sharks, ecologists found that while some species such as blacktip reef sharks swim in a pattern known as a "random walk", others such as tiger sharks can at times hunt for prey or mates by using "directed walks", accurately navigating long distances across open ocean, often at night.
21 February 2011
'Mapping' bats' teeth with GPS explores evolutionary adaptations to diet
In a clever use of GPS technology, biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have "mapped" the topography of bat teeth as if they were uncharted mountain ranges, in order to better understand how toothy ridges, peaks and valleys have evolved to allow different species to eat everything from hard-shelled insects to blood and nectar.
15 February 2011
Living fast but dying older is possible – if you're a sheep
Modern humans may live longer than hunter gatherers, chimpanzees, mountain sheep or the European robin, but what does that tell us about how we age relative to other species? Not much, according to new research published next week in the British Ecological Society's journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, which presents a new way of comparing how different species age.
1 February 2011
Ants ecosystem role is 'key'
(Release produced by the University of Exeter)
Research by the University of Exeter has revealed that ants have a big impact on their local environment as a result of their activity as 'ecosystem engineers' and predators. The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, found that ants have two distinct effects on their local environment.
1 February 2011
Secret life of bees now a little less secret
Many plants produce toxic chemicals to protect themselves against plant-eating animals, and many flowering plants have evolved flower structures that prevent pollinators such as bees from taking too much pollen. Now ecologists have produced experimental evidence that flowering plants might also use chemical defences to protect their pollen from some bees. The results are published next week in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology.
27 January 2011
Female lizard turns the table: why exaggerated colouration makes her a good mate
Most nature lovers know that the more colourful a male fish, reptile, or bird, the more likely it is to attract a female and to have healthy offspring. Females, on the other hand, tend to be drably coloured, perhaps to avoid predators while carrying, incubating, and caring for young. Curiously, the female striped plateau lizard, which lives in the rocky slopes of Arizona's south-eastern mountains, is an exception to this rule in the animal world. Females are more colourful than males - displaying an orange patch on their throats during reproductive season - and the more colourful the female, the more robust are her offspring. New research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology has found one reason this may be so.
11 January 2011
Sirling student makes the case for moths
Schemes designed to reverse declines in farmland biodiversity can help increase the number of moth species and the size of their populations, researchers at the University of Stirling have found. The study by PhD student Elisa Fuentes-Montemayor published online by the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, examines the effect of agri-environment schemes on moths.
11 January 2011
Natural England and the British Ecological Society hold joint conference on how conservation needs to adapt in the face of climate change
Climate change is on the agenda for a joint Natural England and British Ecological Society (BES) conference which starts today. The two day conference -Adapting conservation to a changing climate- will see representatives from government, NGO’s and the academic world joining forces to discuss the latest research into how conservation can respond to the effects of climate change.
10 January 2011
Ginger is key ingredient in recipe for conserving stag beetles
The humble ginger root could be the key to conserving the UK's largest and most spectacular terrestrial beetle – the stag beetle. Ecologists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York have developed a series of new methods to monitor stag beetle numbers – including ginger lures to trap adult beetles and tiny microphones to detect sounds made by the larvae in their underground nests. Conservation efforts have been hampered until now because ecologists lacked a reliable way of monitoring stag beetle numbers.
